Accountability & Discipline...

Meet Diesel. The new face of Kinetic Edge.

Diesel is a African Boerboel Mastiff.

He is 10 weeks old today. He is a handful and then some.
He is has grown from 14 lbs last week to 19lbs today. 5lbs in one week. He will be a big boy fully grown (165-180lbs) as you can see by his dad below...


This little guy is into everything. We have to be accountable to picking up all things "chewable" which is EVERYTHING. He also still has accidents inside and this is right after we have let him out! This is very frustrating at times, but he is making great progress.

Discipline. It requires A LOT of discipline on our part to watch him like a hawk. We also cannot be away from the house as long as we used to. D is also learning the meaning of discipline...here are some recent outtakes.

1 biting is not appropriate especially in the Achilles Tendon
2 pooping on the carpet and then stepping in it leaves a small present for Brad to clean up upon discovery...and all of this is improving my agility :)
3 'playing' with Penelope does not mean pouncing on her and then taking a bite out of her hip...she will learn to fight back sooner or later.
4 facing off with Trigg (our cat fully-equipped with claws) is not one of his better decisions
5 Climbing stairs is easy. Descending stairs requires eliminating the sissy inside.

What does Accountability and Discipline with Diesel have to do with your fitness results? EVERYTHING. Are you getting the results you want? Are you accountable to someone...a training partner or trainer? A friend usually does not work in this situation. Why? Because they won't get in your face and tell you the truth. They would rather 'be nice' and stay your friend by telling you what you want to hear. No. Not on my planet.

Discipline. Are you disciplined about doing what you need to do around exercise and diet in order to get the results you want? This includes some pie-hole shrinking. A small "bite" of chocolate cake after dinner turns into a whole piece.



When you are in slim down mode, for all practical purposes, that cake just went straight to your ass. In fact you might as well duct tape it to your thigh.

Get disciplined away from the gym. I am not saying you can't have sweets or splurge once in a while. Keep it to 1 to 2 meals per WEEK. Any more than that and your habit creeps into every day and then all day every day.

Take home is this...
Accountability and discipline are your receipt to smaller jeans. If Diesel is gaining 4-5 lbs per week, you can surely lose 1-2 lbs per week.

Know you need more help? Kinetic Edge kettlebell/cross-training classes are perfect for accountability. KE is an ever-growing family of people discovering the anti-gym foofoo machines and hamster-wheel cardio. Come get some.

A huge props is in order for Clara James of www.minneapolis.about.com who braved my class last Monday with 16 other virgin Kettlebellers. Little did I know she would leverage her time into a classic piece of prose. Read on...


Kettlebell Classes and Instructors in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the Twin Cities
By Clara James, About.com
Filed In: Health, Sports & Recreation

Kettlebell Class at Kinetic Edge Performance in Woodbury, Minnesota
Brad Nelson

Kettlebells? You'll either be thinking that yes, a cup of tea would be nice, or recalling the pain in your thigh muscles caused from the first time you tried the latest workout that gyms across the Twin Cities are adding to their schedules, and in one case, devoting themselves to.

A kettlebell is a cast iron weight that resembles a cannonball with a handle. The smallest kettlebells weigh around 10 pounds, and the experienced can use kettlebells of 100 pounds or more. A kettlebell class involves fluid yet powerful momentum-based movements holding one or two kettlebells. The workout improves strength, flexibility, and balance together with cardio-vascular fitness, all in one session.

The CIA, octogenarians, horse riders, moms and professional wrestlers use kettlebells to help them beat the bad guys, improve balance and flexibility, and fit into skinny jeans.

Someone who believes passionately in the benefits of kettlebells is Brad Nelson, who opened his own self-described "torture chamber" of kettlebells in Woodbury, east of St. Paul. You'll find Brad at Kinetic Edge Performance. He's the one wearing a "Cast Iron Balls" shirt.

Brad discovered kettlebells in 2003 from an obscure advert run by a Russian kettlebell master in a fitness magazine. Kettlebells turned out to be salvation from his previous run-of-the-treadmill exercise routine, and intense but physically ruinous weight-lifting. He completed a grueling certification course and is a certified Russian Kettlebell Challenge Instructor.

Dripping with scorn for those as-seen-on-TV fitness machines and believing that anything that involves resting your behind in a padded chair while you lift weights is a pathetic excuse for exercise, Brad's attitude is sure to antagonize many weight lifters. But there's certainly something appealing and more rewarding about doing it all by yourself, rather than having a machine kindly lining it up and catching the weight if you let go.

Complete an introduction class at Kinetic Edge Performance, and then move on to hardcore workouts with names like Inferno and Incinerator that have more than a touch of boot camp to them. In the winter you'll burn up such a sweat you'll be able to defrost your own car post-workout just by sitting in it.

Kettlebell beginners will need to be prepared to endure two or three sessions to get comfortable with the weights, especially if you are used to pumping iron with a machine. But if testimonials from kettlebell fanatics are anything to go by, it's worth the investment.

Kinetic Edge Performance
683 Bielenberg Drive Suite 203
Woodbury, MN 55125
Telephone 651-330-9319
More Kettlebell Classes in the Twin Cities

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The following is Clara's blog about her own experience with kettlebells...EXACTLY what is accomplished in a REAL kettlebell class... ANTI-Kettlenetics.


Clara's Minneapolis / St. Paul Blog
By Clara James, About.com Guide to Minneapolis / St. Paul
More Kettlebell! At Kinetic Edge Performance
Sunday July 6, 2008

There's a lot of people across the metro who have a fever for kettlebell classes. The workout, which involves you, a cannonball with a handle, and a fearsome instructor, is gathering devotees at a startling pace.

A session with a kettlebell - an cast iron weight - is aerobics, strength, and flexibility training, all in one. People who exercise and train with kettlebells are as diverse as moms, the FBI, octogenarians, and professional wrestlers.
I tried out a sample class last week at Kinetic Edge Performance in Woodbury, and thanks to instructor Brad Nelson, I hurt the day after. That's the good kind of hurt - the kind that your muscles feel like they did you proud. I'd go back for more.

Kinetic Edge Performance is devoted exclusively to training with kettlebells. Gyms across the Metro area are also adding kettlebell classes to their schedules.

Bastardization of Kettlebells is here...what took them so long?

I'm back in blog mode. Caution: this may stir up anxiety.

It's here. 4.5 years of the 'underground-in-the-know' trenches for me. It happened this past Monday. The grossly anticipated bastardization of kettlebells that has already spawned (at least in my world) the much dreaded red-headed-stepchild phenomenon. What am I talking about? Kettlenetics and Kbells with some supposed expert who doesn't have the first clue about kettlebells and real kettlebell training actually makes you sweat. I have had 6 people ask me about Kettlenetics and Kbells in the last 72 hours. Apparently the infomercial started airing this past weekend on local cable. So it's time to PAY ATTENTION!

A 5-pound weight moved through motions duplicating a bad Richard-Simmons aerobics class. I thought I'd seen it all. But it was bound to happen. As with all great things there has to be some moron who goes and creates this 'FLUFFY' version of a hard-core workout so everyone can feel all warm and fuzzy inside about their 'fitness' program which is really a figment of their imagination.

When I put a clock to what the general public calls working out, they would die in exactly 10 minutes...or 5. Absolutely pathetic. And Kettlenetics are contributing to reducing the fat population? NNNNNRRRRRTTTTT. Wrong answer.

What's next? A support group for people who can't shut their pie-hole, sitting around singing Kum-ba-ya 'attracting' their way to thinness? Nope. Nada. Don't think so.

When you're ready to get off your lazy ass, shut your pie hole and get in the best shape of your life, come to one of my classes. Looking the way you want takes W-O-R-K. Anyone who tells you any different is telling you a bold-faced lie so detrimental that I fear for your future fitness.

You come to my class, one of two things will happen:
1 You'll never come back because you're not disgusted enough with the way you look in the mirror to work hard on a regular basis...face it, you're lazy and you don't want it bad enough.

2 you'll be a RAVING FAN of this type of ass-kicking and add it to your regular masochistic routine.

Kinetic Edge Performance
Delivering Beatdowns Without Apology.
Woodbury, MN

Back to leaving rants without apology.

Out.
Brad

P.S. My mistake, it's a 4 pound weight. Are you kiddin' me?

Twin Cities Live interviews Brad of Kinetic Edge

Twin Cities Live hosts John and Rebecca taste a morsel of the kettlebell beatdown regularly delivered at Kinetic Edge Fitness in Woodbury Minnesota.

RESULTS from the First ever Kettlebell Meltodown...

These are the local results from Kinetic Edge:

Weight Inches 300 time decrease Snatch Reps increase
Burger, Lucy -6.5 - :47
Gunderson, Sue -2 -19 -2:35
Olson, Jill +2.4 -2.75 + :27
Simon, Mark -2:02 + 27
Kunz, Ryan -3:32
Stark, Troy -1 -9.75 -3:49
Little, Marilyn +4.2 -5.25 + :33
Hansen, Jordan +1.8 -2.75 -1:32 +0 reps
Fillbrandt, Steve + .4 -2.25 -6:11
Fitzloff-Meyer, Nedra -4.6 -8.25
Rondeau, JP + .8 -7.5 -3:37 +26 reps
Tulgren, Tom +3.8 -3.25
Mickschl, Ron -6.4 -10.75
Rehnberg, Steve -4.8 -5.00
Burger, Kathy -4.2 -4.75 -3:32 -10 reps
Smith, Dena -3.6 -6.75 -3:01 +20 reps
Hanson Michelle -2.2 -10.00 -4:30 +12 reps
Zitarelli, Nicole -3.4 -7.75 -2:31 +33 reps

Winners:
Body Re-composition
1st Place: Sue Gunderson (-19)
2nd Place: Ron Mickschl (-17.15)

Performance Competition
1st Place: Nicole Zitarelli (35:31)
2nd Place: JP Rondeau (29:37)

Woodbury, MN Tactical Strength Challenge Results 4-5-08

Here's the results:
Name BW DL Place P-Us Place Snatch Place Total Pts Overall
Women's Divison
Fawn Friday 125.2 275 1 12 1 120 1 3 1
Maura Shuttleworth115.8 250 2 11 2 60 3 7 2
Dena Smith 131 215 4 4 4 105 2 10 3


Men's Division
Aaron Friday 156.8 415 3 18 1 114 6 9 1
Alex Vanos 188 445 1 11 4 120 4 9 2
Sean Schneiderjan 219.5 425 2 3 7 139 1 10 3
Nick Jasken 183.4 325 7 17 2 124 3 11 4
Greg Merth 175.2 285 8 13 3 133 2 12 5
Mike Nelson 209.6 405 4 6 5 120 5 13 6
Albert Suckow 218.6 390 5 1 8 107 7 18 7
Matthew Finlay 214.8 330 6 4 6 83 8 19 8


Men's Elite
Brad Nelson 193.6 475 1 12 1 87 1 3 1
Joe Pavel 204.8 405 2 11 2 74 2 6 2


Great turn out and great job by all who participated!!

Squat & Lunge Power via a Lesson from Mom...

Back in December, my mom finally agreed to attend a beginner kettlebell class and also learn some Z drills specific to her. I learned a couple of powerful lessons watching her at the young age of 53 and the way she moves and many others at this age move. Here goes:

1 AGE is NOT a factor in movement contrary to what most people will try to give you as an excuse. When you maintain mobility, you should be able to move and do anything you want to age 100 and beyond.

2 Squat power is deficient at this age bracket, but also in every other age bracket. People seem to dislike squats. Why? Because they hurt. Not hurt as in 'pain' but as in discomfort and being 'sore'. This soreness will be short-lived as the body will adapt as in the SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands). Squatting is important because it is a gross motor movement and one of the Primal Movements (Chek). Squatting also works some of the largest muscles in the body, thus providing more bang for the buck.

3 Lunging power. Also grossly deficient in the general public. Again, because it is 'hard' (or whatever excuse you would like to insert here). I see it every day: people have a very difficult time starting from a dead stop lunge (knee on the floor) to returning to a standing position WITHOUT using their hands as a brace on their knee. This can be from numerous things: No unilateral work on the legs...mobility issues...muscles not firing appropriately. Every time you think that lunges are important think of this scenario regardless of your age:

Johnny: "Grandma/pa will you play with my train set on the floor?"
Grandma/pa: "I might be able to get down there, but I won't be able to get up."

How important is it to you to play with your grandkids on their level?

So lunging is another Primal movement from Chek.


Squats and Lunges. Do 'em. Different ways. Different levels. Bodyweight. Weighted. Jumping. Whatever. Do them. Do them often.